Pharaonic Egypt - World History

Pharaonic Egypt ( 1400 ) Egypt becomes the greatest power in the Near East.

With the fourteenth century begins the so-called Greek Mycenaean Age . The cities of the Peloponnese, led by Mycenae, gradually wrested Crete's dominance over the Aegean Sea. It appears that the Mycenaean Greeks were the result of a fusion between an Indo-European people who had occupied northern Greece for centuries with a non-Indo-European native people, known as the Pelasgic, who occupied the coasts and islands. We don't have many details of this period, but somehow the Greek-speaking Indo-Europeans absorbed the culture of the Pelasgics (who in turn they had borrowed from the Cretans) and became a ruling class. Proof of this is that in 1400The city of Knossos fell definitively into the hands of the Mycenaean Greeks, and thereafter the linear A script (not deciphered) was replaced by a similar-looking script, Linear B, which has turned out to be a form of archaic Greek. The decrypted documents contain recipes and instructions for work. There is no literature, no science, no history, so we can think that the Mycenaeans were a simple mix of traders, navigators and warriors. Perhaps the Indo-European Greeks were the ones who promoted the rebellion against Cretan rule and this in turn gave them dominance over the Pelasgics. The Pelasgian language must have remained in the background compared to the Greek for several centuries. For his part, the more inland Greeks did not receive the ancient Cretan culture with equal intensity, but remained in a more primitive state compared to the Mycenaean Greeks. It is probable that this cultural differentiation corresponds to the differentiation of two of the most important dialects of classical Greek: the Mycenaean Greeks must have spoken the dialectIonian, while the inland Greeks must have spoken Aeolian. The Mycenaean culture spread to southern and central Italy.

Meanwhile Canaan flourished under the Egyptian protectorate. The Phoenicians revolutionized writing. All known writing systems up to then were based on assigning a sign to each word. This made writing a very complex art, since hundreds of different signs had to be remembered. Occasionally, some signs were used with phonetic value to modify the meaning of another sign, but the Phoenicians were the first to develop the idea and create an alphabetic writing system,that is to say, a system in which each sign represents a sound, in such a way that with a reduced inventory of signs (alphabet) any word can be represented. To do this, they chose words that began with each of the signs in their language and agreed to use their signs to represent only that initial sound. For example, the word "ox" was aleph, whose first sound was a glottal stop that does not exist in Spanish, and its sign became the first letter of the Canaanite alphabet. The following were beth, gimel and daleth,which mean "house", "camel" and "door", respectively, but which for the Phoenicians came to represent the sounds b, g and d, respectively. The Phoenician alphabet had no vowel signs. This is due to the fact that in the Semitic languages ​​each lexical root is associated with a specific group of consonants, so that the vowels only have a supporting function, in any case with a grammatical value that can be deduced from the context, that is, in In the Canaanite language there were no word groups like "weight" and "floor", which share the same consonants with completely different meanings, so if the consonants were spelled any speaker could reconstruct the vowels.

On the other hand, the Phoenician trade was enriched with new products. They improved Egyptian glass-making techniques, but above all they discovered purple, a red dye extracted from molluscs that made brightly colored fabrics that did not fade when washed. The Phoenicians jealously guarded the secret of making this dye, thereby monopolizing its trade for centuries. Purple was highly sought after, and sold for high prices. Among the cities that benefited most from these innovations were Tire and Sidon.

In 1387 , Amenophis III, son of Thutmosis IV and the princess of Mitanni with whom he married, occupied the throne of Egypt . Under his reign Egypt enjoyed a long period of peace. The new pharaoh also married a princess of Mitanni, named Tiy,with which he was deeply in love, as can be deduced from various inscriptions. He built for her a monumental pleasure lake more than a kilometer long on the west bank of the Nile. During her reign the god Aten continued to gain prominence. It is possible that Amenhotep III, influenced by his parents and his wife, came to regard him as his chief god, although he officially upheld the traditional rites. However, it appears that his son did not receive a "traditional" religious upbringing, but rather never came to identify with ancient Egyptian beliefs.

The alliance between Egypt and Mitanni had seriously damaged the Hittite kingdom. In 1385 King Arnuanda I died facing invasions and internal rebellions, and was succeeded by his son De he Tudhaliyas II, who, gathering the remnants of the royal army, managed to regain control of the state.

Meanwhile, Babylon was still mired in the period of decline that produced the invasion of the Kassites. Mitanni fell into an internal crisis due to disputes over the succession to the throne, as had occurred in the Hittite kingdom in previous years, while it recovered with the military campaigns of Prince Shubbiluliuma, son of Tudhaliyas II, who was proclaimed king in 1371, after a conspiracy overthrew his brother Tudhaliyas III. 

In 1370 Amenhotep III died. A magnificent temple was built in his honor, the entrance to which was flanked by two huge statues of him. One of them had the property of issuing a note at dawn. No doubt the priests had prepared some mechanical device that gave rise to many legends. The throne was occupied by what was initially called Amenophis IV, but in 1366, four years later, he changed to Akhenaten.His old name meant "Amun is pleased", while his new one was "Aten Pleasing". With this, the new pharaoh declared his apostasy with respect to the main god of the Egyptians, Amun-Ra, and his attempt to replace him with the god Aten. The new pharaoh had revolutionary ideas in religious matters. At first he represented the Aten with a human body and a falcon's head, but he soon abandoned this image and replaced it with a representation of the Sun, like a disk from which rays emanated that ended in hands. Like Ra, the god Aten was for Akhenaten the god of the sun, but the pharaoh denied all the myths that the Egyptians had gathered around Amun-Ra. For Akhenaten, his god was the Sun itself, not an anthropomorphic god who dominated the Sun, but the Sun itself, a celestial entity that provided light, heat and life to Earth and watched over all creatures. Moreover, Akhenaten was not satisfied with raising the rank of Aten among the Egyptian gods, but made him the supreme creator and affirmed that he was the only true god. This is the first case of monotheism in history (Jewish tradition traces its monotheism back to the beginning of time, but it is highly unlikely that Abraham had his only god).

Akhenaten tried to abolish the Egyptian religion, a goal that, of course, was impossible even for the most powerful monarch in the world. He found himself misunderstood by the people and implacable opposition from the powerful priests. He decided to build a new capital dedicated entirely to the cult of the Aten. He called her Akhetaten(Aton's horizon) and was located halfway between Memphis and Thebes. There he built temples and palaces for himself and the nobility who were loyal to him. The temple of Aten was a unique building, since it lacked a roof, so that the Sun could always shine inside. Akhenaten ended up isolating himself in his new capital, neglecting foreign affairs. He dedicated himself almost exclusively to persecuting the ancient clergy, rectifying inscriptions by removing references to the gods, and spreading his beliefs in the small milieu of his family and court.

Akhenaten's wife was called Nefertiti.  and it is well known because a beautiful stone bust with its image is preserved. She was probably an Asian princess, like her mother. The royal family (the couple and their six daughters) occupied a central place in the new cult devised by the pharaoh. Her hymns speak of universal love and reveal a mystical and humanistic thought. Akhenaten also fostered a natural and veristic art. Until then, the Egyptians always represented the heads in profile, the trunk in front and the legs again in profile, so that the poses were artificial and the facial expressions were always similar. Instead, Akhenaten and Nefertiti were portrayed in informal poses, in everyday scenes, playing with their daughters, in moments of affection, etc.

During the reign of Amenhotep III, a Semitic general named Yanhamu had risen to power and became governor of the Egyptian territories in Palestine. He was not the only Canaanite who enjoyed a prestigious position in Egypt. It is probable that one of them (or several) gave rise to the Biblical myth about Joseph, a Canaanite who rose from slavery to viceroy of Egypt. Under the reign of Akhenaten Yanhamu was in Egypt, and it is plausible that he held the high position of "director of the granaries", which would end up linking him with an ancient Egyptian legend, originally attributed to Imhotep, according to which Joseph interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh and prevented seven years of famine, and thus ordered in time to store the necessary provisions to feed the people in the years of scarcity.

Meanwhile, the Hittite king Shubbiluliuma had recaptured the provinces his kingdom had lost years before and in 1365 ravaged Mitanni. He thus formed an empire (known as the New Hittite Kingdom ) to which the kings of southwestern Anatolia and northern Syria were bound by unequal treaties. As Mitanni declined, a powerful king arose in Assyria, Ashur-Uballit, who achieved complete independence for his kingdom from Mitanni.

Mitanni was supposed to be an ally of Egypt, but Akhenaten did not respond to requests for help, nor did he respond to requests from Egyptian viceroys and generals in Syria, who informed him that the Egyptian positions were seriously threatened and requested that he send Yanhamu with an army. Indeed, new Semitic nomadic tribes had emerged from Arabia, much like the Amorites long ago, and were threatening Egyptian holdings in Canaan. They were the Hebrews. Despite Akhenaten's negligence, the Egyptian armies were able to prevent the Hebrews from settling permanently west of the Jordan. However, the newcomers formed three kingdoms to the east: Ammon, Moab, and Edom.The Hebrews adopted the Canaanite language (closely related to theirs), as well as the alphabet, with some adaptations. Gradually they were assimilating various aspects of Canaanite culture.

In 1362 Akhenaten died, with six daughters, but no son to succeed him. The throne was occupied by one of his sons-in-law, Smenkere, who theoretically professed the cult of Aten, but did nothing to prevent all the religious innovations promoted by Akhenaten from being forgotten. Converts to the new religion quickly abandoned it, the priests regained all their power. In 1352 a second son-in-law of Akenaten took the throne, who was originally called Tutankhaten, but who changed his name to Tutankhamen,thus confirming the return to traditional religion. Thebes became the capital of the empire again. The city of Aketatón was abandoned and became a kind of "ghost city". As pharaoh, Tutankhamen was not of great importance: he was about twelve years old when he began his reign and died in his twenties. He, however, has gone down in history for being the only pharaoh whose tomb was not looted by robbers. This was due to the fact that in the construction of a tomb for a later pharaoh, the entrance to Tutankhamen's tomb was accidentally covered by some stones, and thus went unnoticed.

On Tutankhamun's death in 1338,   the Egyptian throne had no heir. Finally, a devotee of Akhenaten's religion, named Ay, seized power, who apparently was not of royal blood, but married Tutankhamun's widow to legitimize his title. Aye tried to rebuild Akhenaten's work, but it was a desperate attempt. The priests sought the support of a competent general, Horemheb, whom they succeeded in making pharaoh in 1333 . marrying him off to a princess. Horemheb definitively eradicated the cult of Aten and reorganized the country. He sent expeditions to reestablish Egyptian control over Nubia, but chose not to engage the Hittites in Syria.

In 1330 the Assyrian king Ashur Uballit died, who was succeeded by his son Enlil-ninari.

Babylon was beginning to show signs of recovery after the invasion of the Cassites. They had rebuilt Marduk's temple and now sponsored the rebuilding of Ur.

 

In 1322 the Hittite king Shubbiluliuma died victim of an epidemic, which the following year also killed his son and successor Arnuanda II. The throne then passed to Shubbiluliuma's second son, Mursil II. The new king knew how to maintain the power of the New Kingdom by effectively containing the relatively frequent revolts of the subject kingdoms. He occupied the Egyptian positions in Syria and completely subdued Mitanni.

 

In 1319 the Assyrian king Enlil-ninari died, who was succeeded by his son Arik-den-ili, who in turn was succeeded in 1308 by his son Adad-ninari I.

In 1306 the pharaoh Horemheb died and was succeeded by one of his generals, Ramses I, with whom the XIX dynasty begins. Actually, his two ancestors did not belong to the family of the Eighteenth Dynasty except for marriages of convenience, but the Egyptians included them in it. Ramses I was already older, so he reigned for just over a year. In 1304 he was succeeded by his he son De he Seti I. The new pharaoh restored the full power of the Egyptian New Empire. He recovered the Syrian positions, although he could not crush the Hittites, with whom he had to sign a compromise peace.

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